A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/massinfo/maasinfo.nnt

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 13.3 KB | 293 lines

MaasInfo.NNTP = Instructions for accessing NetNews Transfer Protocol
servers manually for reading UseNet newsgroups. Version of 1992.Feb.22
Although the information hererin is mostly public domain, this particular
organization of the information is Copyright 1992 by Robert Elton Maas,
all rights reserved. This file is posted as trivial shareware. If it is
worth more than a dollar to you, contact the author to arrange payment by
giving the author some other information of comparable value the author
wants and/or get the file MaasInfo.SQWA which is a listing of Specific
Questions Waiting for Answers which the author has already decided
are acceptable for payment of your trivial-shareware "fee".

The author can be contacted by voice telephone: [phone]
Messages shorter than 50 lines: [e-mail]
Longer messages: ...!apple!uuwest!rem or [e-mail]


%% NNTP, ONLINE MANUAL-TELNET ACCESS

It is assumed you have an account on an InterNet computer with direct
TCP/IP access, and that said computer has a TELNET user program that lets
you connect to other TCP/IP hosts, and that said TELNET program allows
you to select some port number other than the default TELNET port.

NNTP is a protocol described in RFC977 by which a NNTP server program
is accessible to a NNTP client program. The server program has an
archive of lots of articles from lots of UseNet newsgroups, and the
client program wants to obtain copies of some of those articles on
behalf of one or more users. But the commands that the client program
sends to the server program are in plain ASCII text and are quite
simple, while the data sent from the server program to the client
program are plain text headers and contents of articles. Consequently
it's possible for a user without the services of any program except
barebones TELNET to pretend to be a client program and connect to the
server program, then to manually issue commands exactly like a client
program would have, then to read the text coming back to decide which
command to issue next.

First you need to know how to use TELNET at your host, and how to select
a host and port number. On many systems you simply type TELNET followed
by the name (or internet host number) of the host followed by the number
of the port. (Omit the port number to get the normal TELNET port; but for
NNTP you *must* specify the port number.) If your TELNET program uses a
different syntax, you'll have to ask somebody local to your system.

Next you need to know the name or internet host number of some host
providing NNTP service. At present I know of only one that is available
for general InterNet usage:
sol.ctr.columbia.edu (128.59.64.40)
I know about two others available to the Stanford community (ask me
privately if you are on a Stanford host and want the info). If you know
of any other NNTP servers, or how to get a complete list of them,
please send that info to the author.

There is no index of NNTP servers, so finding a NNTP server for you may
be difficult. One suggestion is to look at the headers of messages
posted on Internet mailing lists that are linked from Usenet newsgroups
(or browse sol.ctr.columbia.edu via NNTP if it is still available).
Some of these headers will show the NNTP originating site, and you can
look for one near you and then check to see if that host has an NNTP
server and if it will talk to you, and if not you can contact the
person who posted the article or the Postmaster at that host to check
if either of them know about other UseNet hosts in the vicinity that
might provide NNTP service to your host.

Next you need to know the port number for NNTP service. It's 119. Thus to
connect to NNTP service at sol.ctr.columbia.edu, you say:
TELNET sol.ctr.columbia.edu 119
or if your host doesn't know that name, you say:
TELNET 128.59.64.40 119
or whatever the corresponding syntax is for the TELNET program you use.

Once you get connected, you need to select a newsgroup and then request
headers and/or bodies of messages. You may also want to have the server
print out a complete list of all newsgroups it knows about, but that is
more than 30,000 characters of text so you'd better be saving a
transcript to a file so you don't have to do it a second time.

To select a newsgroup, select a position (article number) within that
newsgroup, and look at headers and bodies of articles, for each such
action you issue a one-line command and then wait for the server to
send you all the text that results. The command lines always start with
a keyword (command name), whereas the replies always start with a
numeric code then a text message, then may have additional lines of
text ending with a line containing a single period. You may ignore the
numeric reply codes unless you want to understand the guts of the
protocol or write an automated browser.

Below are the most useful commands for browsing UseNet articles:

GROUP <NameOfGroup> -- Select a particular newsgroup, print out the Low
and High article numbers and an approximate count of articles, and set
the pointer to the first article of the group. If you now issue another
command (HEAD BODY or ARTICLE) without numeric argument, it uses the
first article. -- The very first command you issue may be rejected due to
a bug somewhere in the interface. If it says 500 Command unrecognized,
try exactly the same command a second time.

HEAD <NumberOfArticle> -- Move the pointer to the article (in the
previously-selected newsgroup) which has that number, and print out just
the header.

NEXT -- Move the pointer forward to the next more-recent article (in the
previously-selected newsgroup).

LAST -- Move the pointer backward to the next less-recent article (in the
previously-selected newsgroup). (Warning, LAST really means PREVious, so
don't get confused; don't blame me, I didn't write the command language.)

HEAD -- Without moving the pointer, print the header of the
currently-selected article.

BODY -- Without moving the pointer, print the body of the
currently-selected article.

By doing HEAD <NumberOfOldestArticle> then alternating NEXT and HEAD, you
can browse headers from oldest forward. Alternately by doing HEAD
<NumberOfNewestArticle> then alternating LAST and HEAD, you can browse
headers from newest backward. Either way, when you see an article you
want to see the body of, simply say BODY.

ARTICLE -- Without moving the pointer, print the whole (header & body) of
the currently-selected article. This may be useful if you're downloading
a whole set of articles without any prior selection. You alternate LAST
and ARTICLE, or NEXT and ARTICLE, to download articles in sequence
forward or backward in time.

LIST -- List *all* newsgroups the server knows about. As I said before,
this generates more than 30,000 characters of output, so beware! You will
want to do this only once in a very long while, and collect all the data
to a file which you then search locally from time to time.

HELP -- Print a list of available commands. Beware, don't use commands
like IHAVE or SLAVE that are supposed to be used for NNTP daemon programs
relaying articles, or POST that are supposed to be used for client-programs
posting new articles, since they are too dangerous to be used manually.
When in doubt, consult the RFC977 and avoiding anything that modifies the
state of the server in any way other than selecting your newsgroup and
article pointer. Probably you won't need any commands except the ones I
listed above.

XHDR <HeaderFieldName> <ArticleRange> -- This is not a standard
command. See if it is listed in HELP before using it. This allows you
to quickly get a list of a single field from the headers of a whole
bunch of consecutive articles by issuing a single command. The most
common usage is to get a list of Subject: fields. The ArticleRange can
be either two numbers separated by a hyphen, or a single number
followed by hyphen, resulting in all articles between the two numbers
(inclusively), or all articles from that number forward to the most
recent, respectively.


Sample session, with comments. (Each line beginning with ;; is a comment.)

TELNET 128.104.230.12 119
;;That was the command to connect to the NNTP server.
;;Next is the junk that is typed out during connection...
VM TCP/IP Telnet R1.2.1
Connecting to 128.104.230.12, port 119
Using Line Mode...
Notes on using Telnet when in Line Mode:
- To hide Password, Hit PF3 or PF15
- To enter Telnet Command, Hit PF4-12, or PF16-24
                                                 MORE...   SUWATSON
201 uakari.primate.wisc.edu NNTP server version 1.5.3 (18 Sep 88) ready
 at Wed Jun 12 21:56:34 1991 (no posting).
group comp.lang.lisp
500 Command unrecognized.
;;Like I said, some bug causes it to reject the first command.
group comp.lang.lisp
211 29 3294 3323 comp.lang.lisp
;;That time it worked. I forget what 211 and 29 mean, but 3294 is the
;; number of the oldest article and 3323 is the number of the newest
;; article.
;;Let's start from the most recent and work backwards in time:
head 3323
;;That was the command, below is the resultant output...
221 3323 <[e-mail]> Article retrieved; head follows.
Path: uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!sei.c
mu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!ram
From: [e-mail] (Rob MacLachlan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: isqrt
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 13 Jun 91 00:31:22 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET News Group Software)
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 77
.
;;The period on a line by itself signals that output is done.
;;Now I back up to the previous article (remember the command to go to
;; the PREVious article is LAST, not PREV), and print its header...
last
223 3322 <[e-mail]> Article retrieved; request text separately.
head
221 3322 <[e-mail]> Article retrieved; head follows.
Path: uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbva
x!singsing.berkeley.edu!parr
From: [e-mail] (Ron Parr)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: defsystem
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 12 Jun 91 21:38:23 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Distribution: na
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 12
Originator: [e-mail]
.
;;All done for this demo, so quit the server...
quit
205 uakari.primate.wisc.edu closing connection.  Goodbye.
Session ended. <ENTER> to return to CMS.
Telnet terminated -- Connection closed
Ready; T=0.17/0.39 20:06:00


Another sample session, using the XHDR command, with comments.
TELNET sol.ctr.columbia.edu 119
;; TELNET-startup printouts omitted here
200 sol NNTP server version 1.5.11 (10 February 1991) ready at Sat Feb 22 05:33:
53 1992 (posting ok).
500 Command unrecognized.
;; The first command from VM/CMS always gets trashed for unknown reason.
group misc.jobs.offered
211 294 13094 13393 misc.jobs.offered
xhdr subject 13380-13393
221 subject fields follow
13380 Programmer With Paradox Experience Needed In South Fl..
13381 QA/Documentation position available in Berkeley, CA
13382 OSI Network Mgt. SW Engr./Florida/RECRUITER
13383 Night Tech Support, Sys admin @ Berkeley, Ca 94705
13384 Re: Replying to misc.jobs.offered
13385 S/W Development Engineer, Interconnectivity Networking
13386 Mechanical Engineer with Aerospace concentration
13387 MS/PhD QUANT FOR WALL ST INVESTMENT ANALYTICS/MODELLING
13388 Research Associate
13389 ==> EXCITING S/W Positions in REAL-TIME EMBEDDED ENV., SJ-CA <=
13390 Univel, SW & Product Eng/Mgmt positions, San Jose, CA
13391 SUN/UNIX SITE INTEGRATER NEEDED IN NEW YORK CITY (RECRUITER)
13392 VMS & DOS C Programmers needed in New York City (RECRUITER)
13393 Debugger Engineer/Apple Computer/Cupertino
.
head 13384
221 13384 <[e-mail]> Article retrieved; head follows.
Path: sol.ctr.columbia.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal
.com!GB
From: [e-mail] (Greg A Buechler)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.offered
Subject: Re: Replying to misc.jobs.offered
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 19 Feb 92 20:26:14 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
  <[e-mail]>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 18
.
body
222 13384 <[e-mail]> Article retrieved; body follows.
I'd like to add my $0.02 worth.  The subject line does not have the quantity
of real estate to include all the information needed to convey to
prospective candidates.  The standard info of WHAT (unix sw dev, etc) WHERE
;; (Rest of body omitted here)
.
quit
205 sol closing connection.  Goodbye.
Session ended. <ENTER> to return to CMS.


%% NNTP-RELATED, NEWSGROUP POSTING VIA EMAIL

It used to be possible to post from InterNet to UseNet newsgroups by
sending e-mail to ucbvax.berkeley.edu with all the periods in the
newsgroup name changed to hyphens. This service has been withdrawn.
There is no longer any known way to post to Usenet newsgroups from
Internet hosts except by connecting directly to an NNTP server, and
this is too dangerous to do manually. Accordingly about the only way,
short of installing Usenet software or getting an account on another
machine, is to e-mail somebody on Usenet asking if they would post for
you.


%% NNTP, Related topics:

MaasInfo.TopIndex -- This "Index of Indexes" tells how to get the index
of RFCs and a few specific RFCs, and where you can find at least two
indexes of public-access UseNet hosts with NetNews.


%% NNTP End.